It seems like the tensions in the world are causing all sorts of stuff to hit the fan especially in the world of politics. In Boston, we have our political scandals involving former State Senator Dianne Wilkerson and current City Councilor Chuck Turner ( I hope it ain’t so, Chuck). Both are under federal indictment for taking bribes. Today they received an additional indictment as co-conspirators.
No sooner had this latest indictment been announced then another announcement comes on about the Governor of Illinois, Rod R. Blogajevich. He was arrested because he conspired to profit from his authority to appoint the successor to President-elect Barack Obama’s Senate Seat. Incredible! (As incredibly, he makes the third…that’s right…third Illinois Governor to be indicted.)
Is it that absolute power corrupts absolutely? Is it that the omnipresent media likes to report the bad eggs more vociferously than the good ones? Is it that the feds are working double-time to uncover political corruption? I don’t know what it is but it seems that
- corrupt and/or
- stupid and/or
- unethical behavior
is multiplying in Boston and nationally among the political set.
In Boston we have House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi* being investigated for over-payments his close associates received from a computer company that won state contracts.
It gets weirder, former State Senator James Marzilli, Jr.* resigned in November as he faced charges of sexually accosting several women.
On the sexual tip, former Detroit Governor Kwame Kilpatrick was arrested not for the affair but for perjury in lying about the affair. Wouldn’t it be great to hear a politician say, “Yeah, I did it and I’d do it again.” As comedian Chris Rock said in one of his comedy special, “You know that you did it, just admit it.”
Joining the married but having an affair as a fast train out-of-office club are Former Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer and, on the gay front, former New Jersey Governor, James McGreevey.
The misdeeds of former U.S. Rep.William Jefferson from Louisiana did have some benefit; it led to the election of the first Vietnamese American in Congress, Anh “Joseph” Cao.
The list of indicted, about to be indicted, and released politicians** goes on and on. It’s almost become easier to recall the names of the ones who were indicted than the many who weren’t.
Who’s next?
* Massachusetts politicians
**Note: I didn’t dare start thinking beyond these recent scandals. I’d never stop listing names if I dug a little further.
It’s my impression that it’s just business as usual. People are cycnical for a reason; it’s very hard not to be.
The problem is, I think, that most politicians have egos big enough to convince themselves that people want them to rule over their poor little selves. And then, once the people have voted them in, the ego gets a chance to expand even more to incorporate “I deserve whatever it is that I think befits my overblown ego that needs constant feeding.”